Growth in Hamilton: Drones and self-driving cars enter the sprawl-curbing conversation

Thestar.com
November 28, 2018
Teviah Moro

If it’s possible to prepare Hamilton for flying cars, city planners will hear you out and not call you crazy.

“We talk about it in the ‘world of what if,’” says Joanne Hickey-Evans, the city’s manager of policy planning and zoning bylaw reform.

Hamilton’s population is expected to grow to 780,000 by 2041, and the city must meet provincial employment targets, which means a total of 350,000 jobs in the city by that year.

It’s game as the city plans for a boom that’s expected to increase Hamilton’s population to 780,000 by 2041, up from its current 537,000.

City staffers recently hosted open houses to gather feedback on how to handle the influx. In addition to population, Hamilton must also meet provincial employment targets, which means a total of 350,000 jobs by 2041.

Housing types, parks and streets are the bread and butter of planning, but attention should also be paid to technology, Hickey-Evans said.

Take, for instance, the prospect of drone-to-door delivery, which Amazon has been testing in various countries.

“From a land-use planning perspective, the drone itself is not affected, but the employment is; you would have big distribution warehouses,” Hickey-Evans said.

There has already been a surge in online retail, meaning more packages at door steps and warehouses, even without the flying robots.

Enter self-driving cars -- with hovering ones also on the horizon -- and questions about parking emerge.

“Because the car’s picked you up, dropped you at the door, you’re not driving your own car. Your parking standards decrease,” Hickey-Evans said.

The city is updating its Growth Related Integrated Development Strategy (GRIDS) to 2041, with the last version contemplating up to 2031.

It turns out those drones and flying cars will have to negotiate much denser neighbourhoods if the city is to meet provincial targets.

“You’ll have to change the built form,” Hickey-Evans said. That means fewer detached homes and more townhouses and apartments.

Densities vary by neighbourhood. For instance, Gibson -- between Wentworth St. N. and Sherman Ave. N., Main St. E. and the CN Rail line -- has 82 persons and jobs per hectare.

By contrast, Oakes, off Golf Links Rd. south of the Lincoln Alexander Parkway in Ancaster, has only 30 persons and jobs per hectare.

In tandem with GRIDS 2, staff are conducting a municipal comprehensive review to make sure Hamilton’s official plan has kept up with provincial policy.

Places to Grow, championed by the previous Liberal government in 2006, has mandated urban growth centres to curb sprawl and ease gridlock.

The GTHA is projected to grow to 11.5 million people by 2031, up from 7.8 million today.

Municipalities have been required to direct 40 per cent of residential development within existing built-up areas in a process called intensification. An updated provincial growth plan, in effect last year, ratcheted that up to 50 per cent until 2031 and 60 per cent after that.

Hamilton councillor-elect Brad Clark says he’s concerned about growth overtaking infrastructure. He argues the city should slap a two-year moratorium on future development in upper Stoney Creek to study the situation.

“We’ve got people walking along a former rural highway without sidewalks and safe pedestrian crossings,” Clark said about Rymal Rd. E.

Elfrida is quickly transforming from a once-sleepy farming hamlet to a bustling urban area with an expected population of 80,000 in coming years.

Clark said he supports the current provincial policy, noting growth along transit corridors is preferable to expanding urban boundaries. The latter comes with high infrastructure costs through sewer and water lines, police and fire services, as well as recreation centres, he noted.

But there has been notable backlash to Places to Grow as of late.

Last week, the Building and Land Development Association blamed the legislation for increasing the cost of housing and limiting supply. This past fall, municipal leaders also complained a lack of green space to grow and demanded more control over community planning.

The new Progressive Conservative government is listening, a Municipal Affairs and Housing spokesperson said Monday.

“The province is working closely with municipalities across the Greater Golden Horseshoe to better understand their challenges around implementing the 2017 Growth Plan, and to address their questions and concerns,” Praveen Senthinathan wrote in an email.

“Our goal is to develop practical and efficient solutions to address these challenges and explore opportunities to streamline the process. We look forward to giving municipalities a voice in planning decisions to appropriately plan for growth across the region.”

Reverting to parochialism without strong regional planning would be the “worst-case scenario,” says Marcy Burchfield, formerly vice-president of the Neptis Foundation, a research organization.

Easing gridlock on major highways with an emphasis on transit requires a co-ordinated approach, she noted. Burchfield pointed to the 905 region as an example: There are more than 3,000 jobs around Pearson airport alone.

“Those jobs have been created, but they all depend on the use of the car to get there. And we’ve outgrown that model.”